Print Story Aquarist Porn.
Diary
By nightflameblue (Tue May 13, 2008 at 09:47:42 AM EST) (all tags)
What happens when you put a photography buff and a bunch of darty small things in a room together?

Fish Porn.  Bad things.  Energy levels.



Since none of these are as nicely taken as I'd like, I'm linking instead of sucking up my file space here.  It's been about forteen to fifteen years since I've taken fish pictures, and never before with a digital camera, so I sort of screwed up and used way too high an ISO setting for the light levels.  Should have opened up the aperature instead.  Oh well.  Not bad for my first attempt.  I'll get better.

Anyway, here's a quick run-down of the new family members:

So there you go.  About thirty minutes sitting in front of the tank trying to catch little flashes of color in between fin-spasms.  Constant motion with these little buggers.  It's fun to watch, hard to catch on a still camera.  Especially when you're going for a close-up.

I did a quick water change last night and cleaned up parts of the tank.  Noticed a whole bunch of new microsword growth in the back corner.  Lots of new little shoots popping up in that rear area.  I may just trim back the parts that haven't rooted by now and let the new growth go where it will for a while.

BREAK

Bad things happened yesterday afternoon in the Funhouse strip-mall daycare center.  Very bad things.  So bad I can't even make fun of Funhouse for being involved in it.

I can honestly say this is the first time I'm sorry that we fail at everything we have a hand in.  There's no pleasure found in this failure for any of us.  Not even our marketing guy can find a way to spin this into a positive.  There's not much more that can be said about it.  It's an ugly situation that I hope doesn't turn any uglier.

BREAK

I had a weird burst of energy late yesterday afternoon.  Mrs. NFB was a little under the weather when I got home so I took the dogs for a walk in the park by myself.  Before getting out of the car with them I said, "OK girls, let's keep the pace up and just shoot around the circle."  We got out, and they listened.  Almost jogging speed the entire way, only stopping once each for a potty break.  I was very impressed, as they typically dilly-dally and sniff every blade of grass along the way.

I felt all sorts of energetic yesterday.  I'm hoping I can keep that energy level up.  It's tough to do that through a work week.  But, after last week working so hard, I'm just feeling all of it pile up in me all day long now and wanting to do something.  I tried to keep active last night, and hopefully I can continue to do that.

I suppose, off to face the crap.  Outz.

< AR/RR | Burned by the fire we make >
Aquarist Porn. | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
Your fish are beautiful. by muchagecko (4.00 / 1) #1 Tue May 13, 2008 at 10:01:29 AM EST
Great pics. Thanks.

"It means more if you have to earn it, even if it's by doing something as simple as eating a meal." Kellnerin


Thank you. by nightflameblue (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue May 13, 2008 at 10:27:53 AM EST
They've colored up a LOT in the few days we've had them.  I look for them to keep coloring up for another week or so.  Who knows how bright they'll end up?

[ Parent ]

No kidding. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue May 13, 2008 at 01:39:19 PM EST
There's strange angle problems to deal with when taking pictures of them in an aquarium environment.  The light travels to the eye fine, but a camera is such a pin-point spot that you need to be angled downward slightly to pick up the correct colors.  I had a few shots where they either looked like they had no color at all, or were ridiculously dark colored.  Practice, practice, practice.  And this is a good species to practice on.  If you can get a shot of one of these little guys in a close-up, you can probably get about anything.  They're so darty-fast.

[ Parent ]

Last time I was by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #9 Tue May 13, 2008 at 06:10:40 PM EST
at the Shedd Aquarium, I would have had some awesome shots if my little point and shooter didn't have such a sad aperture. Everything was blurry. I think you really need a DSLR (which I now have).

When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
[ Parent ]

Be careful with those potty breaks by georgeha (2.00 / 0) #2 Tue May 13, 2008 at 10:15:34 AM EST
You don't want to end up on a sex offender's list, it's best just to wait until you get home.




The puppy's are probably safe. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #3 Tue May 13, 2008 at 10:26:29 AM EST
Well, mostly.

[ Parent ]

gotta love digital cameras by garlic (2.00 / 0) #5 Tue May 13, 2008 at 10:53:09 AM EST
more than 150 pictures of the fishes.



Yeah. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #6 Tue May 13, 2008 at 11:45:06 AM EST
No wasted film = lots of wasted time.  It would have been a lot fewer had they just held still for a few seconds every once in a while.

[ Parent ]

YIKES by StackyMcRacky (4.00 / 1) #10 Tue May 13, 2008 at 09:20:31 PM EST
this is why we will do whatever it takes to not send the dude to daycare. 

the dude is only 8 months old.  oh man, i don't even want to imagine what that mother and father are going through.  :(



Good plan. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #11 Tue May 13, 2008 at 11:46:33 PM EST
Not because I think the blame lies completely on the daycare folks in this particular case, but because I've just always had more than a few problems with the concept of daycare anyway.  I know it's considered a necessary evil to most, but I wouldn't want to use it if we were kid oriented in any way, shape, or form.  Mrs. NFB feels the same way.

The worst part for the parents here is they just won't ever know, no matter what the investigation shows.  And that sucks a whole lot.

[ Parent ]

Aquarist Porn. | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback